WSU Cougars lose an in-state OL commit, but gain a new DE commitment from Dallas Hobbs

(TNS) — A weekend of official visits yielded a new defensive lineman commit for Washington State, which on Sunday afternoon earned the verbal pledge of Dallas Hobbs, a 6-f00t-5, 240-pound defensive end from Deerfield (Mass.) Academy who was originally committed to UConn.

Hobbs was in Pullman for the weekend, and he announced his commitment to WSU via Twitter Sunday.

Hobbs was committed to Bob Diaco’s UConn staff, but the Huskies have since replaced Diaco with Randy Edsall, who begins his second stint as UConn head coach. Hobbs’ offer list included Army and Toledo -- where he was recruited by new WSU receivers coach Derek Sage.

Hobbs is originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he played defensive end and tight end for Washington (Iowa) High School, and he’s the son of a former Iowa Hawkeyes tight end. But he opted to spend a year at prep school at Deerfield Academy because he wanted to hone his talents in hopes of attracting the attention of a Division I program.

Hobbs is the first defensive line prospect to commit to WSU since the Cougars’ announced the hire of new defensive line coach Jeff Phelps last Friday.

However, his commitment also coincides with the de-commitment of Lincoln (Tacoma) offensive guard Quazzel White, who announced via Twitter Saturday afternoon that he has pulled his verbal commitment to WSU. White, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound prospect has offers from Boise State, Hawaii, San Diego State, Utah State and TCU. He’s been committed to WSU since November but visited TCU over the weekend and appears to be leaning in that direction.

White is the second in-state commit WSU has lost in the last week. Hazen High DE Joe Tryon flipped his commitment from WSU to UW last week.

The Cougars have 20 commits as part of the 2017 recruiting class, with five already enrolled at WSU.